An Underground City Was Found in Konya

An underground city was found by chance in the Sarayönü (Ladik) district of our Konya (Likonya) province.

     The Byzantine period underground city, part of which has been unearthed by the excavation and cleaning works carried out for 5 months by the Konya Museums Directorate, consists of 20 m2 rooms connected to each other by tunnels of different lengths and widths. It is predicted that the boundaries of the underground city, which was found to be spread over an area of ​​5000 m2 according to the first determinations, may expand further as the studies progress, according to the surveys carried out in the region. Water wells, stoves, chimneys, lamp places for lighting, cellars, ventilation holes in living spaces that resemble rooms. The history of the place found is dated to the 8th century according to the first materials obtained.

Hasan Uğuz, archaeologist and head of excavations of Konya Museums Directorate, said that they have uncovered 8 living spaces so far by cleaning the dents that occur in places during the infrastructure works. Uğuz stated that according to the findings, they determined that the local Christian people used the underground city in the 8th century to protect themselves from the raids that lasted for 150 years.

Uğuz stated that they continue the excavation, cleaning and mapping works simultaneously.“Map engineers continue their work by overlapping the surface with the underground. With the maps we have produced, we can say that it has spread over an area of ​​5000 square meters for now. There are spaces underground and there are galleries that connect spaces. The galleries are quite small. This shows us that people are not very well fed and that they are small size.’’

   Uğuz pointed out that the discovered place is unlike any other in Konya and its surroundings, and that they may have discovered one of the largest underground cities, and made the following assessment:“We may have found one of the largest underground cities in Central Anatolia. The rumors of the people of the region and the collapses in different places show us that the underground city can spread over a very wide area, and that it can be a very long tunnel system. The openings and dents we caught give positive signals at this point. It is an important historical and touristic discovery as no other underground city is known in the region.” Stating that the human capacity and exact size of the underground city will become clear as the work progresses, Uğuz continued as follows:“Soil currents coming from some submerged places with water filled the spaces between 30 and 80 cm. After the spaces are cleaned and exposed, the capacity and size of human accommodation will become clear. There are domestic domestic spaces and interconnected galleries that excite us. The most important thing for us is the discovery of this place and the start of the work. This underground mystery, how people lived here, how these places were created at that time attracts attention. We think that it will provide a serious benefit to urban tourism.” Reminding that the underground cities were concentrated in Anatolia in the 1st and 2nd centuries, Uğuz noted that they think that the first places were built in earlier periods, that they were expanded in the 8th century, and that dating work on the finds continues.